Of the Way how in
Particular they Afflict Men with Other Like Infirmities.
But
who can reckon the number of infirmities which they have
inflicted upon men, such as blindness, the sharpest
pains, and contortions of the body? Yet we shall set
down a few examples which we have seen with our eyes, or
have been related to one of us Inquisitors.
When an
inquisition was being held on some witches in the town
of Innsbruck, the following case, among others, was
brought to light. A certain honest woman who had been
legally married to one of the household of the Archduke
formally deposed the following. In the time of her
maidenhood she had been in the service of one of the
citizens, whose wife became afflicted with grievous
pains in the head; and a woman came who said she could
cure her, and so began certain incantations and rites
which she said would assuage the pains. And I carefully
watched (said this woman) what she did, and saw that,
against the nature of water poured into a vase, she
caused water to rise in its vessel, together with other
ceremonies which there is no need to mention. And
considering that the pains in my mistress' head were not
assuaged by these means, I addressed the witch in some
indignation with these words: “I do not know what you
are doing, but whatever it is, it is witchcraft, and you
are doing it for your own profit.” Then the witch at
once replied: “You will know in three days whether I
am a witch or not.” And so it proved; for on the third
day when I sat down and took up a spindle, I suddenly
felt a terrible pain in my body. First it was inside me,
so that it seemed that there was no part of my body in
which I did not feel horrible shooting pains; then it
seemed to me just as if burning coals were being
continually heaped upon my head; thirdly, from the crown
of my head to the soles of my feet there was no place
large enough for a pinprick that was not covered with a
rash of white pustules; and so I remained in these
pains, crying out and wishing only for death, until the
fourth day. At last my mistress' husband told me to go
to a certain tavern; and with great difficulty I went,
whilst he walked before, until we were in front of the
tavern. “See!” he said to me; “there is a loaf of
white bread over the tavern door.” “I see,” said
I. Then he said: “Take it down, if you possibly can,
for it may do you good.” And I, holding on to the door
with one hand as much as I could, got hold of the loaf
with the other. “Open it” (said my master) “and
look carefully at what is inside.” Then, when I had
broken open the loaf, I found many things inside it,
especially some white grains very like the pustules on
my body; and I saw also some seeds and herbs such as I
could not eat or even look at, with the bones of
serpents and other animals. In my astonishment I asked
my master what was to be done; and he told me to throw
it all into the fire. I did so; and behold! suddenly,
not in an hour or even a few minutes, but at the moment
when that matter was thrown into the fire, I regained
all my former health.
And much more
was deposed against the wife of the citizen in whose
service this woman had been, by reason of which she was
not lightly but very strongly suspected, and especially
because she had used great familiarity with known
witches. It is presumed that, having knowledge of the
spell of witchcraft hidden in the loaf, she had told it
to her husband; and then, in the way described, the
maid-servant recovered her health.
To bring so
great a crime into detestation, it is well that we
should tell how another person, also a woman, was
bewitched in the same town. An honest married woman
deposed the following an oath.
Behind my
house (she said) I have a greenhouse, and my neighbour's
garden borders on it. One day I noticed that a passage
had been made from my neighbour's garden to my
greenhouse, not without some damage being cause; and as
I was standing in the door of my greenhouse reckoning to
myself and bemoaning both the passage and the damage, my
neighbour suddenly came up and asked if I suspected her.
But I was frightened because of her bad reputation, and
only answered, “The footprints on the grass are proof
of the damage.” Then she was indignant because I had
not, as she hoped, accused her with the actionable
words, and went away murmuring; and though I could hear
her words, I could not understand them. After a few days
I became very ill with pains in the stomach, and the
sharpest twinges shooting from my left side to my right,
and conversely, as if two swords or knives were thrust
through my breast; whence day and night I disturbed all
the neighbours with my cries. And when they came from
all sides to console me, it happened that a certain
clay-worker, who was engaged in an adulterous intrigue
with the witch, my neighbour, coming to visit me, took
pity on my illness, and after a few words of comfort
went away. But the next day he returned in a hurry, and,
after consoling me, added: “I am going to test whether
your illness is due to witchcraft, and if I find that it
is, I shall restore your health.” So he took some
molten lead and, while I was lying in bed, poured it
into a bowl of water which he placed on my body. And
when the lead solidified into a certain image and
various shapes, he said: “See! your illness has been
caused by witchcraft; and one of the instruments of that
witchcraft is hidden under the threshold of your house
door. Let us go, then, and remove it, and you will feel
better.” So my husband and he went to remove the
charm; and the clay-worker, taking up the threshold,
told my husband to put his hand into the hold which then
appeared, and take out whatever he found; and he did so.
And first he brought out a waxen image about a palm
long, perforated all over, and pierced through the sides
with two needles, just in the same way that I felt the
stabbing pains from side to side; and then little bags
containing all sorts of things, such as grains and seeds
and bones. And when all these things were burned, I
became better, but not entirely well. For although the
shootings and twinges stopped, and I quite regained my
appetite for food, yet even now I am by no means fully
restored to health. — And when we asked her why it was
that she had not been completely restored, she answered:
There are some other instruments of witchcraft hidden
away which I cannot find. And when I asked the man how
he knew where the first instruments were hidden, he
answered: “I knew this through the love which prompts
a friend to tell things to a friend; for your neighbour
revealed this to me when she was coaxing me to commit
adultery with her.” This is the story of the sick
woman.
But if I were
to tell all the instances that were found in that one
town I should need to make a book of them. For countless
men and women who were blind, or lame, or withered, or
plagued with various infirmities, severally took their
oath that they had strong suspicions that their
illnesses, both in general and in particular, were
caused by witches, and that they were bound to endure
those ills either for a period or right up to their
deaths. And all that they said and testified was true,
either as regards a specified illness or as regards a
specified illness or as regards the death of others. For
that country abounds in henchmen and knights who have
leisure for vice, and seduce women, and then wish to
cast them off when they desire to marry an honest woman.
But they can rarely do this without incurring the
vengeance of some witchcraft upon themselves or their
wives. For when those women see themselves despised,
they persist in tormenting not so much the husband as
the wife, in the fond hope that, if the wife should die,
the husband would return to his former mistress.
For when a
cook of the Archduke had married an honest girl from a
foreign country, a witch, who had been his mistress, met
them in the public road and, in the hearing of other
honest people, foretold the bewitching and death of the
girl, stretching out her hand and saying: “Not for
long will you rejoice in your husband.” And at once,
on the following day, she took to her bed, and after a
few days paid the debt of all flesh, exclaiming just as
she expired: Lo! thus I die, because that woman, with
God's permission, has killed me by her witchcraft; yet
verily I go to another and better marriage with God.
In the same
way, according to the evidence of public report, a
certain soldier was slain by witchcraft, and many others
whom I omit to mention.
But among
them there was a well-known gentleman, whom his mistress
wished to come to her on one occasion to pass the night;
but he sent his servant to tell her that he could not
visit her that night because he was busy. She promptly
flew into a rage, and said to the servant: Go and tell
your master that he will not trouble me for long. On the
very next day he was taken ill, and he was buried within
a week.
And there are
witches who can bewitch their judges by a mere look or
glance from their eyes, and publicly boast that they
cannot be punished; and when malefactors have been
imprisoned for their crimes, and exposed to the severest
torture to make them tell the truth, these witches can
endow them with such an obstinacy of preserving silence
that they are unable to lay bare their crimes.
And there are
some who, in order to accomplish their evil charms and
spells, beat and stab the Crucifix, and utter the
filthiest words against the Purity of the Most Glorious
Virgin MARY, casting the foulest aspersions on the
Nativity of Our Saviour from Her inviolate womb. It is
not expedient to repeat those vile words, nor yet to
describe their detestable crimes, as the narrative would
give too great offence to the ears of the pious; but
they are all kept and preserved in writing, detailing
the manner in which a certain baptized Jewess had
instructed other young girls. And one of them, named
Walpurgis, being in the same year at the point of death,
and being urged by those who stood round her to confess
her sins, exclaimed: I have given myself body and soul
to the devil; there is no hope of forgiveness for me;
and so died.
These
particulars have not been written to the shame, but
rather to the praise and glory of the most illustrious
Archduke. For he was truly a Catholic Prince, and
laboured very zealously with the Church at Brixen to
exterminate witches. But they are written rather in hate
and loathing of so great a crime, and that men may not
cease to avenge their wrongs, and the insults and
offences these wretches offer to the Creator and our
Holy Faith, to say nothing of the temporal losses which
they cause. For this is their greatest and gravest
crime, namely, that they abjure the Faith.
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